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| shin ramberk 276th Post
 
Copper Customer
    
|  "Re(4):New Transformers Movie News" , posted Fri 7 Jul 05:29
quote:
Forgive my ignorence, but isn't Transformers a toy line made into a cartoon aimed at very young kids ? Like GI-Joe, He-Man and such ?
Am I missing something ?
I could write an essay on all of this. But I'll try to be concise here.
Yes, there exists a Transformers mythology.
Yes, there is a strong cult following for the toys and stories.
The best way to think of this is to compare it to Street Fighter fandom. There are people who only play one or two SF games and use only one or two characters and don't care about anything else. And then there are people who want to know every single bit of history and personality to every single SF game and character. That's the same with Transformers. There are folks who only like a particular toyline and particular characters and don't care for the story or other extra materials. And then, there are folks who are in love with the mythology and characters set in 1984. The story, the characters, the toys are great. Period.
And as far as this whole, "I can't believe they are making a TF movie" way of seeing things well, I'll just tell you a few things.
First, Transformer mythology is not extremely deep but it is interesting. Second, the purpose of this movie of course is to make a lot of money and sell a lot of toys. But for a hardcore fan such as myself, the opportunity of getting a TF movie is the opportunity to...
...explore cool science fiction themes with an awesome setting. This is a war of sentient, alien, transforming, robots that are fighting a covert war on Earth.
...make a really, really, really, really, kick ass summer action movie.
We'll see how the movie turns out. I'm a little worried about it (not sure if the script is good enough). I'm sure the CGI and action and special effects will be great. But without a good story, no one is gonna care about TFs in the long term. I know enough people will go watch it to make it a success.
WHO THE HELL DOES NOT WANT TO SEE A MOVIE ABOUT TRANSFORMING CARS AND PLANES THAT DUKE IT OUT ON US HIGHWAYS AND CITIES!
http://ramberk.blogspot.com
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| Amakusa 675th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member
  
   
| "Re(2):Q/A For Ramberk: Beast Machines" , posted Sun 9 Jul 04:12:
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The show just didn't have any magic for me. It was too dark. The stories weren't as fun or interesting. And the characters simply weren't as likable or fun-- even though a lot of them were from Beast Wars.
I really didn't like Beast Machines. Its a very 'controversial' TF show because its the sequel to the very loved Beast Wars. And IMO, its just not as good.
Beast Wars was good, but I don't think it was anywhere near as good as people make it out to be. The same way people think G1 is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, they tend to forget that it too had its fair share of stinkers.
When people remember Beast Wars they remember season 2... that's it. They don't remember stuff like Rhinox farting in Megatron's face or Megatron building a giant cannon with the help of a proto-human girl (which harkens back to G1-style plots in of itself). Or how about the Simon "I must raise the body count" Furman killing everyone off at the end of the show, even randomly.
When people remember Beast Machines they don't remember such things as Obsidian and Strika's intro, or Cheetor coming into his own, or the very last battle between Optimus and Megatron. They remember stuff like "they butchered Rattrap" and "Buddha Monkey" and stuff that made the show different from Beast Wars. No, the problem wasn't that Beast Machines was a bad show-- the problem was that it wasn't Beast Wars.
Get over it. Take it for what it is. The show is as much a test of character for the Transformers as it was for the viewers, and by and large it just went and showed that a lot of the fandom is filled with a bunch of petty fools, considering how this one show managed to bring out the worst of the fandom has ever seen or probably ever will (even this new TF movie won't elicit such strong reactions).
quote:
beast Wars sucked my bal sack.
I wouldnt mind watching the beast wars anime they released in japan however. the non cgi one.
You have no idea what you're asking for.
I found Kagami's sword in a junk yard.
I will rule the world and find that truly good cup of coffee.
"Dink-a-dink-a-dink-a-do."
[this message was edited by Amakusa on Sun 9 Jul 04:15] |
| shin ramberk 281th Post
Copper Customer
| "Re(3):Q/A For Ramberk: Beast Machines" , posted Sun 9 Jul 16:55
quote:
Get over it. Take it for what it is. The show is as much a test of character for the Transformers as it was for the viewers, and by and large it just went and showed that a lot of the fandom is filled with a bunch of petty fools, considering how this one show managed to bring out the worst of the fandom has ever seen or probably ever will (even this new TF movie won't elicit such strong reactions).
Wow, everything you just said about pettiness and bringing out the worst in the fandom, is applicable to your own comment. I did not think i was petty or nasty in my original post, so I think its odd that you even mention that. Your post was rather defensive-- whats that all about?
Look, I just gave my opinion on Beast Machines. Frankly, Beast Machines was too dark, too boring and it also made a lot of mistakes with the characters. That last one can be debated, but I doubt you'd change my mind on that.
Beast Wars was not the greatest show ever, it did have clunkers and silly stuff. BUT the vast majority of the show had great episodes, great characterization and great story archs that extended over multiple episodes. Beast Machines had bad characterization, boring plots, themes that got too dark and uninteresting.
The premise of Beast Wars was so simple but the writers made that show so fun and you cared for the characters. Just about every character on that show had a fully developed personality. Dinobot was an honorable warrior. Megatron was a cunning leader with a bad temper but intelligence and sense of style. Optimus Primal had self doubt but conviction. Waspinator was just too damn fun to watch. Rattrap was a cowardly inventor who always loved to pick on Dinobot. Rhinox was the loyal right-hand bot for Optimus, smart and dependable. Cheetor was the young, naive soldier that always rushed into battle.
Beast Machines didn't have any of that. Optimus because this crazy messiah figure with hallucinations and whacked out plans ("trust me, this is a suicide mission and I don't have proof of why we should do it, but i had a vision.") Rattrap became a dishonorable coward. Rhinox a traitor. Megatron a lunatic.
But hey, its a matter of opinion. I don't think Beast Machines was complete -trash- but it was a let down from Beast Wars and it was just too damn dark and with very bad characterization. IMO. The show did have some interesting ideas but not enough.
BTW, what do you mean "a test of character for the Transformers as it was for the viewers"? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
http://ramberk.blogspot.com
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| Baines
163th Post
Regular Customer
| "Re(4):Q/A For Ramberk: Beast Machines" , posted Mon 10 Jul 06:48
quote:
Look, I just gave my opinion on Beast Machines. Frankly, Beast Machines was too dark, too boring and it also made a lot of mistakes with the characters. That last one can be debated, but I doubt you'd change my mind on that.
Beast Machines just wasn't a very good show.
Graphically, the world was dead and bland. While it was a point in the story, I think it was more a cop-out for cheaper CG work. Beast Wars managed to look somewhat alive with rock and plants despite hardly ever showing any indigenous life. Beast Machines looked like it was filmed at night in a warehouse district. Such a move certainly helps on costs, but it makes the project look cheap and lazy. G1 Cybertron had much more details, even if it sometimes looked like a patchwork quilt.
Beast Machines required that you know Beast Wars to get the impact of some of the character plots. Particularly on the poor saps that ended up working for Megatron in Machines. Machines had ties to the past, but you didn't really miss much if you didn't really know the connections.
Beast Machines pacing was awful. It would be weeks before anything really "happened," and then it would just be some minor thing like finding out the real identity of one of Megatron's lackeys. You could chop the series down to around five episodes and probably get roughly the same amount of story. Now, this is true for many shows... But Beast Machines failed in that the individual shows were so blandly generic visually and blandly lacking in story, that you had little to no reason to even watch any particular episode other than in the hope that it might be an episode where a fragment of plot were revealed. The story was dead.
And that is without really starting to analyze where Beast Machines fails (or the very few things that it managed to do right.)
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| Baines
165th Post
Regular Customer
| "Re: Exo-Squad" , posted Mon 10 Jul 17:15
quote:
As for story, did you ever watch Exo Squad? A friend of mine mentioned that show had a good story, but it didn't fall through. (Sorry, different subject)
Exo-Squad was pretty good.
Unfortunately, it went downhill fast near the end. ("End" being before it was dropped, not before the story ended.)
The Neosapian/animal hybrids introduced around the last arc were just stupid. They basically turned a serious futuristic war story into a Saturday morning cartoon. They looked stupid. They had stupid abilities.
And it was stupid that they were effectively invulnerable. They were bulletproof and had insane healing abilities. Because they were fighting guys that used machine guns and missiles, and this was still a cartoon, so you couldn't show flesh-based creatures getting shot to pieces... So they were made invulnerable. Which basically meant the Exo-Squad couldn't do anything to them. They ignored bullets and direct missile hits only knocked them down. And they were stronger, faster, and more agile than exo-suits.
Around that point, I stopped caring. And the show didn't last much longer.
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| Bootation 533th Post
New Red Carpet Member
|  "Re(1):Re: Exo-Squad" , posted Tue 11 Jul 04:29
quote:
As for story, did you ever watch Exo Squad? A friend of mine mentioned that show had a good story, but it didn't fall through. (Sorry, different subject)
Exo-Squad was pretty good.
Unfortunately, it went downhill fast near the end. ("End" being before it was dropped, not before the story ended.)
The Neosapian/animal hybrids introduced around the last arc were just stupid. They basically turned a serious futuristic war story into a Saturday morning cartoon. They looked stupid. They had stupid abilities.
And it was stupid that they were effectively invulnerable. They were bulletproof and had insane healing abilities. Because they were fighting guys that used machine guns and missiles, and this was still a cartoon, so you couldn't show flesh-based creatures getting shot to pieces... So they were made invulnerable. Which basically meant the Exo-Squad couldn't do anything to them. They ignored bullets and direct missile hits only knocked them down. And they were stronger, faster, and more agile than exo-suits.
Around that point, I stopped caring. And the show didn't last much longer.
I also liked exo squad quite alot. Cool story awesome mechs. They had some weird exo squad robotech tie in the toy stores. No doubt some cheap gimmick the toy companies to make a quick buck.
Bastards.
Wolf Bronson was the man.
Pretty please check out my neato sweet awesome webpage
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| emagius
0th Post
New Customer
| "Re: Q/A For Ramberk: Beast Machines" , posted Wed 12 Jul 10:02:
quote:
I don't think the dialogue was that great either. I just thought it was a different take for Beast Machines, but I couldn't quite follow too well either.
I still love classic Transformers episodes.. You just can't come up a classic Transformers phrase from Megatron:
"Your incompetence overshadows your stupidity Starscream! You couldn't lead androids to a picnic!"-God, where can you EVER find dialogue like that again? Megatron was the man.
The movie (which, until recently, I would watch it at least monthly) had a number of notable quotes. Pretty much anything Megatron, Starscream, Rumble, Galvatron, or Unicron said was a keeper, and even Optimus, Hot Rod, Soundwave, Springer and Grimlock had some great lines.
And the voice acting in the movie was fabulous. Consider Megatron's (Frank Welker) bargain with Unicron (Orson Welles) or Galvatron's (Leonard ) betrayal of Unicron. There are few films, let alone cartoon movies, that have as well delivered dialog as those pieces. That they are accompanied by stunning visuals is just out of this world.
[this message was edited by emagius on Wed 12 Jul 10:25] |
| shin ramberk 284th Post
Copper Customer
| "Re(1):Ramberk: Die - Cast and Synth music" , posted Sat 15 Jul 09:58
quote:
-I'm not convinced Hasbro America will make them die-cast, nor bring back Megatron as a Walther P38 die cast. Optimus's smoke stacks will be altered too, from what I heard from friend of mine... Japanese Takara stuff is really expensive...
sushi
BTW, I also liked "Dare", not to mention I love Vince DiCola's music, especially from Rocky 4. Synth music like Vangelis or DiCola can never be recreated again since the generation now may think it's outdated. I don't think so.
Transformers Classics, will be plastic. The toyline includes an Optimus Prime that looks like a modern semi-truck. A Megatron that looks like a nerf gun (its an acceptable choice I think). A Starscream that looks like an F15 jet but has a much better robot form. A Hot Rod that looks like a G1 Hot Rod but very poseable and much better looking robot mode. An Astrotrain figure that has a modern bullet train mode, a decent space shuttle mode and a very good robot mode. Plus a Bumblebee that sorta looks like a VW bug but has a great robot mode. Go to www.transformers.com for pictures.
Hasbro and Takara both released G1 reissues. These are basically re-releases of the old G1 toys. Takara released G1 "gun" Megatron but Hasbro couldn't because modern toy laws dictate you can't sell realistic looking toy guns. The smokestacks on G1 Prime had to be shortened because of modern safety standards-- there was a fear that the long stacks would break and a kid would choke on them. Both companies used diecast in their figures. But Hasbro had to make other changes like longer missiles, to accomodate modern saftey laws. Takara figures were just about exact replicas of the originals.
Interestingly enough, Hasbro is releasing a new Transformers sub-line called Transformers Titanium that uses diecast in the figures. This line takes figures from different toylines and puts them in 3" and 6" sizes. Only the 6" size figures can transform.
And Beast Wars has been released on DVD, but it might be hard to find.
I did love TF the movie. The music and everything. Still watch it routinely. Unicron's theme is very memorable. And it did have great lines.
http://ramberk.blogspot.com
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| nobinobita
44th Post
Rare Customer
| "Re(3):Toy/Movie Conept pictures" , posted Tue 22 Aug 00:53
quote:
I think they look like McFarlane's creations or something. They remind me of Cain from RoboCop 2, or even that lame Virus movie from Jaime Lee Curtis. Prime looks .... weird. Very different though.
Agreed.
They all have a semi grotesque McFarlane feel to them.
The re-designs aren't as bad as I feared they'd be, but I think they could be better.
I think they look cool, but they don't have the iconographic appeal of the original designs. They just all look like cool killer robots, with very little distinction (and too many moving parts to be immediately striking).
For instance, in the new designs, Prime has the same silhouette as Bumble Bee.
I'm not saying they have to look just like the originals, just that they disregarded alot of what was cool about the G1 designs.
The G1 designs worked because the robots visually reflected the vehicles they turned into, which reflected something of their character.
Prime was big and sturdy and boxy like a truck. Bumblebee was squat and round and friendly like a Volkswagon Beetle. Megatron was sharp and aggressive and utilitarian like a gun.
I don't get any of that from the new designs, well, cept for the feeling that all the decepticons now scream "EVIL!!!".
Also, the decepticon faces look dumb.
But i'll still watch the movie, and maybe i'll feel different after i do.
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| nobinobita
48th Post
Rare Customer
| "Re(1):Megatron" , posted Fri 25 Aug 15:43:
quote:
Alien Jet Mode
Zoom in of Robot Mode
head
head 2
Oh man! Those are weird!
I almost like it, ALMOST. I mean, from a purely visual standpoint it kinda looks cool. It's a neat take on blending organic and mechanical forms.
I like the way the exterior plates recall both human muscles and beetle parts (i mean the insect)but it lacks cohesion and refinement.
I just feel like it's too busy, and it doesn't have a very good silhouette at all. The legs just go into the waist, there's no real pelvis.
I know it's not human, and doesn't need to adhere to human proportions, but it looks awkward.
Here are some designs that I think are similar, but more successful:
Last Man
Last man again
IBID
Guyver
But of course, I am heavily partial to Japanese stuff.
I feel like American conceptual artists tend to throw in too many parts in their mecha designs.
To me it doesn't read as more "realistic", it just makes it harder for me to concentrate on the whole form.
I felt the same way about the WETA Evangelion redesigns (which this Megatron seems to borrow his head from)
Also, if he turns from a cool bio-organic robot into a cool bio-organic jet, it sorta loses the novelty of transformation cos he doesn't really turn into something familiar.
Oh yeah, and one more thing...
That doesn't look like Megatron!!!
But it'll probably look real cool when its moving, and i'm going to see the movie anyway.
[this message was edited by nobinobita on Fri 25 Aug 17:17] |
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